Hi mtx hope you are doing well
what are your thoughts on last case? who do you think that old woman and who she is focus on is it amuro or conan? and what abt the baby is it possible for him to be KARASUMA ?!!
I think this latest case was very refreshing, similar to the Butler shinkansen case, where we revisited classic DC mystery themes and settings that aren't often used. You immediately get a classic kidnapping case with the added trait of a seemingly gory and highstake threat from the start through the reveal of a head in a jar (File 1126).
The twist that the gory atmosphere was ultimately a fakeout is such a callback to the very old Ayumi kidnapping case (File 83), where the head she was stuck with was a prop as well. It was also a neat trick on how to create the illusion of a 3D head out of a 2D paper.
The trick of opening a lock with a mini-explosion using matchsticks (File 1128) was also quite genius and I hadn’t thought of such a way to actually work (as expected of Gosho).
Another revisited theme was Masumi and her protective and watchful gazes against anyone with potentially ill intent towards Conan, which I always love to see more of. Her noticing Amuro's nosiness towards Conan (File 1126) took me immediately back to Yusaku cold case in Bourbon arc (File 814), where she started glaring the same way towards Subaru after he alluded to figuring out Conan's true identity discreetly.
As for whether her eventually revealing to Conan, that Amuro is investigating him (File 1128), is gonna lead to any actions from Conan's side is all up in the air. Since Conan already views Amuro as an ally, he most likely wouldn't be too concerned of it, since unlike his Bourbon worries in File 1009 (after his recent Kudo Shinichi publicity) he has no reason to suspect the BO is onto Edogawa Conan.
One thing I somewhat got right was something I speculated in regards to one of the suspects that Ran and Sonoko found so familiar. I had speculated that Kanamaru was an employee who has worked in Poirot since before Amuro & Masumi intro, based on the clues that were given in File 1127 (Knowledge on behind-the-counter, familarity, etc).
I was convinced, but mainly hopeful, that we were finally getting the reveal of the mysterious never-appearing owner of Café Poirot. It seems however unfortunately that, while the line of thought was correct, it was rather a former employee who covered for the owner when he was hospitalized in the past (File 1128).
It was however cool to learn that Kanamaru had previously appeared as a background Poirot employee in the anime, making his general design and official manga debut pretty cohesive in the DC franchise.
Now... as for the important question of yours, who is the old lady that looked unique in how she appeared as a witness with a mysterious toddler in a stroller and who also appeared once again at the very end...?
She is none other than: Karasuma Renya's mother pushing her shrunken Boss son in a stroller!!!
Jokes aside, she did pretty much catch every other fan's attention the moment she appeared and it was a running joke that the boss has finally made his appearance xD
As for what I really think, I'm not really entertaining the idea that the Boss would have first of all shrunken into a younger age than our main protagonist (a 7-year-old), since it would lose any air of suspending disbelief and start becoming more comical than serious (especially since a toddler boss would be too vulnerable as a threat). The old lady also looked quite generic for a character design, which of course doesn't need to mean she isn't important, but it does ultimately lessen the chance that she is a major player in the story. What I however entertained was the possibility that she could be another named, but unrevealed, old woman character in the story, who has the best timing to appear in this stage of the ongoing plot. I'm talking about Haneda Kohji's mother, Haneda Ichiyo.
Considering that Gosho is very likely already setting up the introduction of Haneda Yasuharu (Kohji's named father in the marriage registration in File 947) through the mystery of Vader (respirator elder), it couldn’t be more fitting to have the also-named wife being setup to get introduced in such a discreet way that once she eventually appears in association with Vader (assuming it's Haneda Yasuharu), it will leave a bigger and better impression on the reader than a simple worthless appearance of a new character.
As for her motives for appearing around Poirot Café, it could be that similar to Vader, who this old lady is actually being watchful of is neither Conan nor Amuro, but rather Sera Masumi. Vader has had his eyes on Masumi and Mary (which again fits with him being Yasuharu) and seemingly realized that Akai Mary has become a middle-schooler (File 1096), so in a similar fashion, this could be Gosho sprinkling in some hidden continuation of that plot thread, but with the twist being that Ichiyo (Kohji's mother) is trying to confirm her husband's (Vader/Yasuharu) crazy findings by borrowing one of her housemaids' baby as a part of her cover as a passerby, rather than glamorously appearing in a vintage/expensive car that shows her status of being from the powerful Haneda family.
The ending of the chapter had a sidenote mentioning that many premonitions were swirling around Café Poirot, which is ultimately enough that it is referring to what Masumi brought up about Conan being investigated by Amuro, but it could also indeed covertly be including the looming old lady literally outside the Café hearing the rom-com commotion inside. What is however the most exciting is that the awaited Osaka Heizuha likely-confession case in Naniwa has been teased even in the to-be-continued note to be the next big 5-chapter case coming in Aug 7. I can't wait to finally see more development of not only the main characters of this stage (Heiji & Kazuha) but also Rum arc's new stars of this subplot that have thoroughly been a joy to follow (Momiji and Muga).
